well, i havent decided yet on the type of basket.... i thought a square one to fit between the rails and the cross members... but maybe that one will be too small for my needs, and the space on top of the crossmembers would be useless... so maybe removing them and making a longer basket?? i know i want to keep the roof rails, but the crossmembers i dont mind removing them...

No worries on the rating of the rack. I hauled a 230lb couch tied down with 4 ratchet straps up there for 30 miles at 60 or so MPH in 15MPH crosswinds.
The truck would have flipped before the rack gave out.
Yes, it was a bone chilling drive.
Yes, if Aunt Edna dies you'll be able to strap her up there and dump her at Cousin Normy's place.

Ever meet someone that accidentally bought a set of 35s?
They call me Birddog. Master of the Sawzall.

if you do a basket that is square between the side to side cross members....what would you do with the extra length of the roof rack? You would have some space at the end and at the front probably...does that extra space give you any benefit? I would think it would just be wasted space...

Heck, you could even make the basket the entire length of the roof...u bolted to the roof rack...so it hangs down below the roof rack...and still have room to put the cross members in place...maybe use the cross members as a sort of divider to wedge a cooler against the side of the basket or keep things from sliding around...or extra security on top to keep something laying flat, etc...the cross members being adjustable allow you to move them anywhere you want...I'd try to integrate them into your basket idea maybe

well, it seems i still have a lot of research and thinking to do... im picking the truck tomorrow, so i havent been able to give it a good stare and begin picturing things... i could even do a mock up of the regular equipment i carry to give a better idea...

as soon as i decide i will try to do a sketch, but most probably i will end up just building it and taking pics...

O.k. I have attached pics of my rack which is similiar to the DEPHEP rack. I had to build mine because DEPHEP's wouldn't ship (too big) to where I live. I normally (when going camping) carry a 5 Gallon Jerry Can (40lbs), a full size spare (50lbs) and two large North Face bags (total of 80lbs). The roads that I drive on here would be considered horrible by US standards and camping consists of 30KM of trerrible roads/trails that are rutted from trucks with 18inches of ground clearance. Additionally, I stand on the rack while packing it and have never had the rack I built or the factory rack flintch.

I have topper tape between the my rack and the factory rack to prevent slipping and only four hooks securing it to the factory rack. I think that this is the best way to go since it distributes the weight to the entire factory rack. Anyway it works well for me.

Oh. one thing to keep in mind if you go this route. The factory bars on the xterra are not flat. There is a bow in them and when you build your rack you will have to factor that in or you can pull your factory rack out of the roof with the aftermarket rack. Let me know if you have any questions.

Yes, there is a bow. It is ever so slight however when you put flat steel on curved aluminum you can guess which will win. I made the top portion than put a small bow in it using weight and a forklift! Also, the topper tape helps fill the gap if you don't get the bow exact. Put a 4' or 6' level on your bars and you will see it. Here are some more pics.

One of the pics show the rear of the rack that is made for a steel 20L/5gal jerry can. The loops that you see on the top of the rack are for the rachet strap that holds the can down (offset because of where the nozzel is). I don't worry about the wind resistance of it too much since when the jerry can is up there it has a full size spare that sits in front of it and the can is only a couple inches taller than the spare.

You can see when I was testing (still in primer) it with the cooler, spare and can on it. I could have fit another cooler up there, it has a lot of room.

I am looking at doing a bolt on shovel & machette (the thing to have in Africa) mount for it one of these days.

anyways my idea was to put the rack inside the rails, not on top of them... this way, the bow will not be a problem... however nothing is decided yet, so i will keep this in mind in case i decide to mount it on top...